Course Section | Columbia Law School

Primary Goals

• A working knowledge of general structure of criminal liability, including the basic principles of criminal law as contained in the common law and elaborated in modern criminal codes based on the Model Penal Code
• The ability to read a statute and understand (a) what it says and (b) what policy choices it represents
• The ability to discuss intelligently the merits of those choices in light of the principles and policies animating the criminal law.